I thought capstone night went very well and was a good experience. Before I got to the school I was practicing at home for hours, since I got home from school until it was time to get ready and go. I felt very prepared for my presentation. I was in the room with two other students and all of our presentations went pretty smoothly. We presented to one parent but also one other parent that was just there to watch. They both gave me some great feedback. My judge knew A LOT about my topic which was very helpful and interesting. I thought my presentation went a lot better than the one I did in class. While in class I got really nervous but when I was presenting infront of the judge I wasn’t nervous at all. I personally think I did really good, a lot better than in class. I felt like I acctually knew what I was talking about. Now that capstone is almost over and I look back on my paper, presentation and the class I beleive that it all was a very good experience and is really going to help me in my college career. One thing I don’t really think is helpful is the amount of time we have to do things. In college we aren’t going to have a whole semester to write one 10 page paper, we are going to have a lot less time. Other than that, this class was a great learning experience. I honestly beleive that this class will definatly help me out when i am in college.

When I was first starting and thinking about my capstone project I chose a topic that I am very interested in. As an internet user myself, I went into it knowing a little bit of information about it and had my own opinions on the subject. I definatly enjoyed resarching and finding out more. I found all of the statistcs about the internet useres, Facebook and Twitter very interesting! Every year, even every day, the number of people accessing the internet is increasing drastically. The statistics made me realize who exactly is using the internet based on age groups, the results were shocking! Before viewing the numbers I wouldn’t think that there were as many people 65 years old and older that use the internet. I learned a lot of new things throughout my research process while also finding proof of the things that I already knew. I also was able to proove that some of the things I thought I knew were in fact incorrect. Looking back over the entire paper, I honestly can say that there is a lot more research that can be done about the internet. I feel that my paper covers the top questions and gives me the answer to my overall topic; How does the internet affect our lives?

I chose two sites out of the 100 to review:http://www.etsy.com/,http://mediamatters.org/
Etsy.com is an online shopping website and mediamatters.org is an informational website. I really liked mediamatters.org because they rapidly posts reports and research documenting conservative misinformation thoughout the media world. This could be very helpful to people who get information from Twitter, Facebook, or other media sites from other users who have no credibility and who is giving incorrect information. They monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and internet media. People my age who are in school always need research for classes and having a website that corrects misinformation of other websites that aren’t credible for their information could be very helpful.

I thought etsy.com was also a cool website, you can sell things, create a registry for a wedding or event, read blogs or just shop. They have just about anything you could imagine, from really expensive things like diamond wedding rings to not so expensive mobile accessories and gifts. Etsy.com also gives great creative gifts and decorating ideas. It seems to me like it is similar to pinterest.com except the fact that you can buy straight from the website itself on etsy. These two websites are very different but both very useful, Whether you want to get serious and reaseach or have fun and shop. Both can be used for a lot of different things. A lot of High school students I know like to shop and this website makes it very conveinient. Online shopping is becoming more popular and this website contains and sells almost anything you can think of.

I never thought by this time I would be this far into my research paper. I have compressed all of my many subquestions into just a few. I have been gathering information throughout this week trying to answer those few questions and I have been successful. Before I start writing section 4 of my paper I am trying to gather all of my information and make sure I have every little detail so I don’t forget a thing! Over spring break I will need to get the writing portion of section 4 complete and since I am not going on vacation or anything I can take a little bit of time out of everyday to get it finished. I have found many articles on my topic but have yet to find a book that actually answers my questions. I am defiantly enjoying the research, there are so many surprising facts I have found out about the internet and people that I didn’t know before hand and couldn’t have ever guessed. Overall my research paper is going good and moving along, I have good sources and can’t wait to find more!

I agree with Egan and his 6 steps moving to maturity. I beleieve you have to be indepentent and be able to count on yourself rather than others in order to gain maturity. His 6 steps explain ways to do that. I can definatly relate to step 2, “Change to relative independence from a state of dependency on others. The student must take charge of his own learning rather than depending on a teacher to feed him knowledge.” Throughout my junior and senior year I have had the same math teacher that is not very good at her job, teaching. She would mess up examples she shows us when she takes notes, puts the worng answers online for us to check our answers, and is just flat out not good at teaching. Luckily math is one of my best subjects and I have taken control and began to taught myself. Over the past two years almost about everything I learned in that class I have taught myself. Besides that Sycamore as a whole definatly does not me the chance to grow in the ways that Egan describes because we don’t have any freedom. They don’t let us do anything on our own and have gotten way to strict. There are some teachers who give us a little bit of freedom and its great and if the whole administration was like that I beleive I as a student growing up would easily grow. As humans we cannot depend on others to help us mature. We have to go through different experiences and real life problems on our own to gain maturity.

When I first started my capstone project I had no idea what my topic was going to be or what I was supposed to do with it, but now I have figured out my topic, I have gathered a lot of sources, and have been doing some research at school and also at home when I have some free time. For this project I am researching how the internet has changed people socially. This is something that interests me very much, people all around the world have changed the way they interact with others. People hide behind their computers because they are too shy in person and others act like a completely different person just for their entertainment. This topic brings up multiple questions that I am very happy with and can’t wait to find the answers to. I have started researching a little bit into it. I emailed some people that I think will give me some good opinions, facts and information. I have also found some great websites that have a lot of good information. So far my researching process is going great! I can’t wait to find out more. Meeting with small groups really helps me out when it comes to needing help and getting others opinions on what to do and how to do it. Using the blog site helps me to creating a general idea of how to write about a certain topic and in what way. The book, The Craft of Research, gave me a good insight on how to pick my topic, what to do with it when I picked it, how to come up with sub-questions, how to research, what to look for when researching, and how to put everything together. I have learned a lot about researching and I have picked a topic that really interests me, I can’t wait to learn more about it!

Over-parenting is when a parent keeps watch on the smallest activity that their child does and, in some cases, tries to control it. In other words, restricting your child’s freedom. In my opinion, not letting your child make mistakes won’t teach them how to live life. Mistakes are what we learn from and what makes us who we are as we grow older. If a parent is always assuming their child needs more and cant get it without their help it hurts the child’s confidence and limits the abilities that they think they have. Every parent wants their child to learn to be independent, not dependent. If a child is raised with the help of their parents throughout their whole life never learning how to do things on their own, they will have no idea what to do when they are older and out in the “real world” without their parents guiding them. They think they are incapable of success without their parents. Parents need to allow their children to learn on their own. By doing so, once the child has accomplished something without any help they will feel proud of themselves and will boost their strength and confidence. Parents always want the best for their children and always want them to do their best but instead of getting mad at them when he/she doesn’t get a perfect score on a math test, just let he/she know that they can do better and to try harder next time. Parents should want their kids to be okay with who they are rather than being perfect and being the best because in this world, nobody is perfect.

“For players, though, injuries are a day-to-day reality, indeed both the central reality of their lives and an alternate reality that turn life into a theater of pain.” I chose this quote because it basically sums up the entire article. Throughout the article it talks about a few different players and their past injuries and how they view them. In my opinion this quote puts together the things that they all say. I think all players would agree when it says that injuries are a day-to-day reality. Players get hurt everyday whether it is something small or something that could put them out of their career forever. Also I think the amount of focus a player gives to an injury is what determines how bad it is or not. For example, if a player is running and falls on his knee and is just a minor injury, if he keeps thinking about it and is always paying attention to it saying he can’t do something because of it, in his mind thats going to make the injury seem bigger than it really is. The rest of the quote is basically saying that their lives revolve around injuries. If they have a huge injury, it could possibly end their career forever, then they will have nothing. Their life and dreams would be over.

I can relate to Alex and his problem with adderall since I have taken 60 milligrams it since I was in 5th grade. I agree with him when he explains that you are able to maintain intense focus while losing the ability to sleep at night. When I take Adderall to late in the da I have that same problem since it lasts for ten hours. I have gone two full days with no sleep before because of the effect of the medication, just like the effect if had on Alex. The artical states that, “4.1 percent of American undergratuates had taken perscription stimulants for off-label use.” Thats is A LOT! I do know a few people who do take the medication just becasue they like how it makes then feel but I had no idea there were that many people who do it. In my opin ion the fact that people sell Aderrall to people who need finish homework and papers for school the next day is typicall dangerous.

While reading this article I, personally, understand very well about the topics they discuss about Adderall but did learn a lot more. I had no idea how many people actually study the effects of these medications on people. It is shocking to me the amount of research that is put into this. There are so many drugs that have been researched and developed and I realize that it is almost impossible for the people who are not prescribed to the drugs to get their hands on them and use it for their own liking. I agree that it is pointless to ban the use of neuroenhancers because if people are taking them and abusing them now, they aren’t going to stop once they are banned.